Victoria’s biggest solar project, partially built by robots, injects first power into the grid

The first electricity from what will be the biggest solar farm in Victoria has been sent to the grid, taking the total number of large scale solar farms operating in the state to 17.

The 250 megawatt Goorambat East solar farm, near Benalla in the north of the state, is the first solar project to be built in Australia by Engie, which also owns the Hazelwood battery in the Latrobe Valley, which was built at the site of the shuttered coal plant.

Goorambat East is one of a number of solar projects in Australia trialling robotic technologies to accelerate and lower the cost of normally labour intensive installations. It has used several different companies to demonstrate how their technologies can automate the installation of pilings and solar module mounting.

Engie bought the project from Neoen in 2023, and installed the first of around 500,000 solar panels around six months ago. It reached registration status in late September, and is expected to reach full production in 2026.

The first output from Goorambat East was noted on Wednesday, with just a few megawatts sent to the grid. The solar farm will now have to work through various “hold points” as part of the testing and commissioning process that can take several months.

It will displace the Kiamal solar farm as the biggest solar farm in Victoria. The biggest in the country to date is Acen Australia’s partially complete 720 MW New England solar project in NSW, although bigger projects are in development.

In Victoria, Edify Energy’s Nowingi solar farm, sized at 300 MW, with a 300 MW, four hour big battery attached, and Lightsource BP’s 300 MW West Mokoan solar farm, also a solar battery hybrid, will overtake Goorambat East in size.

They are two of six solar battery hybrid projects in Victoria that have won underwriting agreements in tenders held under the federal government’s Capacity Investment Scheme. The next tender will exclude solar battery hybrids as the state focuses on wind energy to help it reach its target of 95 per cent renewables by 2035.

Engie also owns wind farms at Willogoleche and Canunda in South Australia, and has several other solar and wind projects in development.

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